My Grandmother Passed Away

 My sweet grandmother passed away last October.  We always felt Grandma would out live us all.  In the end, Covid caused her dementia to progress.  I know it was 7 months ago.  I am just now finding the time to write this post and to be honest, I haven't wanted to write about losing her.

Grandma was in a nursing home.  We weren't able to visit her due to restrictions.  We found out she was sick in August.  They had placed her in the hospital.  Again, due to restrictions, we weren't allowed to go see her.  My uncle worked for the hospital, so he managed to go see her.  They moved her back to the nursing home on hospice.  The administrator of the hospital did help us face time. her on several occasions.  We had one phone call with her and we saw her trying to respond to us.  It gave us hope that she might pull through.  Sadly, she passed away 3 days later.  The nurses said she was peaceful in her bed. 

To answer the one question I know everyone is wanting to know....No, she did not have her teeth.  She still had the bad habit of wrapping her teeth up in napkins or wash clothes.  The nurse thinks they may have been thrown in with the laundry.  

She had her funeral all planned.  Her and Grandpa had paid for everything.  She had a casket picked out.  The one thing she did not plan on was what she would wear.  My mother and I found a nice pleated skirt and hot pink top.  

When you lose a loved one, the funeral home will ask you if you want to do their makeup or fix their hair. You can hire someone to do this for you.  Do not get me wrong, this is not an easy task for anyone.  My mother had done this for her mother and her best friend.  So, she felt like she could do it.  I wanted to go with her for support.  My sister felt the need to go as well.  

Here is how that played out.....My mother, my sister and I are in a room off the chapel at the funeral home.  They bring Grandma in on a long metal gurney.  This was the first time we had seen her in 8 months.  My emotions were telling me to cry, but my mind was telling me Grandma would have been having a crazy time with the current situation.  My mother started fixing her hair.  Grandma had lost a lot of it.  It wasn't as easy to fix as we thought it would be, but my mother had fixed her hair many times before.  She continued on doing what she knew to do.  My sister started getting anxious and then started telling my mom what to do.  She eventually took the brush from my mom.  Let me tell you, in that moment, my mother gave my sister a look and I was seven years old all over again.  I could see my mom about to lose it.  

At that moment, I started inspecting Grandma's clothes when I saw red finger nail polish on the nails of her fingers.  Oh my goodness, Grandma would have been trying to get all of that off. She was always proud of her pretty fingernails and often gave us manicures when we spent the day with her.  So, while my mom and sister are going around and around on getting grandma's hair just right, I begin scratching off the red finger nail polish.   It was not an easy task.  It did get us all too laughing and giggling.  I am sure the funeral home director probably heard us and thought we were losing our minds.  My daughter heard us and had to come in and find out what we were doing.  I am not sure what she thought, but we were a sight!    

Grandma is now buried next to Grandpa.  It rained the day of her funeral.  We had a nice gravesite service.  All her children, their spouses and grandchildren came.  

Even though I wasn't able to go visit her before she left to be with Grandpa, I miss her every day. All her stories have been showing up in my Facebook memories.  She was a handful, but she was our handful.